West Nile Virus Recently Found In Gosport Area

Staff Report

According to Owen County Health Department Environmentalist John Reeves, a mosquito group captured in a trap in the Gosport area has recently tested positive for the West Nile virus. This is the first confirmed positive test reported of the virus in Owen County in 2009.

Health officials are asking Hoosiers to be smart and use insect repellent containing DEET, and be certain to make sure property is free of any standing water. Standing water could be used as breeding grounds for the mosquitoes that carry the virus. Check flowerpots, buckets, old tires and clogged gutters.

Another place where large numbers of disease-carrying mosquitoes breed is in accumulations of sewage water. Homeowners should repair all malfunctioning septic systems that are discharging to the surface.

"This does not come as a surprise," Reeves said. "West Nile virus was present in the county last year, and we were certainly expecting to see it again this year."

West Nile virus is transmitted to a human by a mosquito that has first bitten an infected bird. A person who is bitten by an infected mosquito may show symptoms from three to five days after the bite.

Most people infected by West Nile virus will have either no symptoms or mild symptoms. A few individuals will have a more severe form of the disease, encephalitis, or inflammation of the brain, or meningitis, while is inflammation of the tissues that cover the brain and spinal cord. West Nile virus can have these symptoms: high fever, headache, stiff neck, muscle weakness or paralysis, and confusion.

Most people have a very mild disease. Although the virus has been reported in people ranging in age from nine months to 94 years old, severe disease has been most often present in individuals over the age of 50 or those with weakened immune systems.